Devellano, the Senior Vice President of the Red Wings provided the helpful primer to Labour 101 NHL style over the weekend with his comparison to the players being but cattle on the ranch, allowed to come on up to the ranch house for a meal before heading back off to mend fences and such we guess.

The Detroit News made sure that the talking points got a little wider distribution than the British Columiba based website, dedicated mostly to university and high school sports on Vancouver Island.

Among his helpful contributions:

"The owners can basically be viewed as the ranch, and the players, me included, are the cattle," Devellano said. "The owners own the ranch and allow the players to eat there. That's the way it's always been and that's the way it will be forever. And the owners simply aren't going to let a union push them around. It's not going to happen."

And to help make sure the message was delivered he added:

"Each owner/team has a decision as to how they want to pay their players, as long as they are under the cap. Now (NHLPA executive director) Donald Fehr would have you believe by getting rid of the cap, the owners would make more money and that the sky is the limit, but trust me ... the owners would lose their (behinds). We've tried that. It doesn't work. There is just too much cost involved in running and owning a team."
Devellano seemingly was channelling his inner Leghorn Foghorn to the Island Sports News, effectively asking the players, "any of this getting through to you son"

Kind of instructive as to the mindset of these negotiations at the moment, if such a term can be used for two sides that seemingly stare at the answering machine and dodge each others calls.

For the moment however, to rephrase Mr. Devellano if we may, with the dispersal of the NHL's cattle to the distant farms in Europe and beyond, the Commissioner it would seem is "ALL hat and NO cattle".